really???
now we are getting into the demographics of academy voting. Amazing
I always agree with you but IMO you are way off base here but that's just me
2017 Golden Globes: ‘La La Land’ dominates, complete list of winners
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really???
now we are getting into the demographics of academy voting. Amazing
I always agree with you but IMO you are way off base here but that's just me
I worked with Garth Davis on an advertising job about four years ago. Super nice guy, super talented. He was in the middle of directing Top of the Lake. Haven't seen Lion yet, but not convinced the script has legs beyond the first half. Could be wrong, will (obviously) need to see it first.
For me the biggest disappointment last night was that Jeff Bridges did not win Best Supporting for his role in Hell Or High Water
Sure. It's impossible to escape isn't it? I love films, always have, but an Academy Award is everything it says on the box and nothing much beyond it, in much the same way Sundance, Cannes, Berlin, etc, work. Broken down, the Oscars is a heavily commercialised, self-congratulatory ceremony that entices studios to spend millions on publicists and Best "X" campaigns, causing films to be written, produced, shot, edited, released and promoted for the cache of winning an Oscar (the Weinstein Company/Miramax made millions pandering to it, and Shakespeare in Love was the result. Yeah, that film was definitely better than The Thin Red Line (my favourite Malick film), Life is Beautiful and Saving Private Ryan (one of my favourite Spielberg films)). Nothing wrong with that, but I can't pretend it's not that, either.
Some of my favourite, all-time, most life-changing films have never won an Oscar (or an award of any kind). Sentimentality aside, I mostly watch it because I love seeing filmmakers celebrated. As a gauge for films that resonate into and beyond the zeitgeist they're created in, not so much.
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Life is Beautiful was indeed good. Thin Red Line never took off - it looked like the film had potential, but that's how it stayed till the end.
Saving Pvt Ryan was overhyped. Never liked any film where Matt Damon is saved - including recently from planet Mars.
The opening battle scene was much better directed in a Clint Eastwood directed war movie that followed shortly after.
Saving Pvt Ryan was overhyped. Never liked any film where Matt Damon is saved - including recently from planet Mars.
The opening battle scene was much better directed in a Clint Eastwood directed war movie that followed shortly after.
It's almost become a joke in the industry... "I have this screenplay in which a lot of lesser, secondary character's arcs are prescribed in such a way that they risk/lose their lives in order to save Matt Damon".
I thought Life Is Beauriful was a masterpiece and deservedly won the award. Who can forget him stepping over the theater chairs to get to the stage to accept the award. Thanks for the memory.
As to your others I agree with all but one and that was the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan. Yet your Clint Eastwood opening was also great.
No film stood out for me this year. Maybe I am getting picky but each of the five you mentioned left me wanting in the end. The two I would add to your list are Lion and Eye In The Sky.
We just returned from seeing Hidden Figures today. Not too often you hear a lot of applause when the movie ends anymore. Well received by the audience.
Do they still hold those?
I'm not saying the Academy Awards aren't significant, just that their significance is best contextualised within history.
Best Director and Best Picture in 1975 were split between films from Altman, Kubrick, Lumet, Fellini, Forman, and Spielberg. Nashville, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Armacord, Dog Day Afternoon and Jaws all still stand the test of time and represent some of their director's best work. Barry Lyndon? Man that film sucks (and for me, was the beginning of the end for Kubrick creatively, admittedly, after the cinematic genius of Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange).
And though of course, this is partly a reflection of my own personal taste, it's really difficult for me to buy into the hype surrounding awards season knowing that in ten years it's entirely possible I'll be sitting down to watch something and reach for L'Avventura again rather than La La Land or Fences. Honestly, it's more likely I'd reach for Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which was only ever nominated for one award, but remains one of my favourite films of all time.
There will always be room for "Check Your Brains At The Door" movies. They are fun. Just because we like sweets doesn't mean we can't feed our minds some of the time.
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I agree with you, Jim. It's a weak field this year.
La La Land was enjoyable but not amazing. I didn't think it stacks up to recent winners either. I would like to see it again as perhaps I'm too harsh on it. Also, musicals are polarizing to begin with.
Interesting - I didn't enjoy Deadpool past the first 15 minutes. But i'm in the minority on that movie.
The Thin Red Line was Malick's first film in 20 years. Production was chaotic (not unusual for him), the script was written and re-written but never actually shot, actors were given abstract direction that constantly changed, many roles were reduced to cameos or cut completely from the edit, Malick only watched one cut from beginning to end (a five-hour assembly) resulting in the film taking 13 months to edit, he constantly battled Hans Zimmer who had created over six hours of music for the film before a frame had been shot, and Malick then fell out with the two producer's who had coaxed him back behind the camera, resulting in them being "banned" from set during production and then "banned" from attending the awards ceremony. Malick gave no interviews to promote the film, allowed no photographs to be taken of him, and then failed to show at the Academy Awards.
Aside from the fact that the film itself (to me) is his best (with Badlands a close second and Tree of Life a distant third), the sort of process Malick employs tends not to jibe that well with Academy voters, and in terms of box office grosses, tends not to result in investors receiving much in the way of a return. Still takes nothing away from who he is, even though his reclusive nature and unwillingness to promote his own films means those of us who appreciate what he does are given very little insight into exactly what makes his films so captivating.
I enjoyed La La Land, a lot more than my wife or sister-in-law, it just didn't;t live up to what I expected. Every time I see a commercial on TV I still smile. Manchester by the Sea was so depressing with no characters to really like. Hell or High water very good but not a Best Picture contender same. I walked out of Hidden Figures with a smile on my face but again not a Best Picture contender.
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